Time for a new game plan?

For some years now we have witnessed the virulent spread of football or sports-related vocabulary in universities today - goals, targets, training, teamwork, game-playing and league tables, not to mention meeting challenges head on, raising the stakes, tackling and driving (all "going forward", of course).

So why not carry it to its logical conclusion and encourage academics to shadow football managers instead of business executives - the latter are surely a counsel of despair considering the current state of the British economy ("Business to teach academics to lead", 5 February)?

With the prospect of the research excellence framework around the corner (replacing the research as academic enterprise model), surely this is the way forward for players keen to raise their game, or become the "higher education heavyweights" of the future. Bearing in mind that "thinking too much hurts performance" - in golf - as researchers have recently proved, what are we waiting for?

Gillian Ania, University of Salford.